Ancestral Witnesses: Literature and the African American Religious Imagination
James Baldwin and Audre Lorde: A Revolutionary Hope
As a series, Ancestral Witnesses will explore the intersections of religion and African American literature produced during the social upheavals of the Civil Rights and Black Power Movements and their aftermath. The panels will feature discussions that examine how black writers engaged religion in their efforts to imagine black liberation and human freedom, as well as how black religions have shaped African American literary visions. We define “religion” broadly to include not only Islam and Christianity, but also African-derived practices (i.e. voodoo or hoodoo) and "new" belief systems (i.e. Rastafarianism and the International Peace Movement Mission).
Our capacious understanding of religion is reflected in the writings and life experiences of literary figures themselves: James Baldwin and Audre Lorde.
While James Baldwin and Audre Lorde will be the focal points for this event (with their 1984 interview in Essence magazine serving as a key, shared document), the series will explore how religion and spirituality figured in the life and work of a range of other black writers. Alongside the roundtable conversation, there will be choreographed readings from selected texts and musical performances, given music’s centrality to both African American literary and religious traditions alike.
This event is free and open to all.
This event is sponsored by the Institute for Religion, Culture, and Public Life; Columbia University School of the Arts; and Harlem Stage.
This conversation is a part of the year-long, city-wide celebration The Year of James Baldwin on the occasion of what would have been the author's 90th year, presented in partnership with Harlem Stage, Columbia University School of the Arts, New York Live Arts, with collaborators: The New School's Vera List Center for Art and Politics, the School of Media Studies and School of Writing, the National Black Theater, the Harlem Book Fair, and the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.
During the Spring semester, the two-part Ancestral Witness series will continue with an in-depth look at Maya Angelou and Amiri Baraka.
Panelists at the event include:
Rich Blint, Columbia University
Alexis De Veaux, Author & Activist
Imani Perry, Princeton University
Moderating:
Josef Sorett, Columbia University
Musical performances by:
Marti Newland, Singer, Core Lecturer in Music Humanities, Columbia University
Brandee Younger, Harpist